Together we stand.

By
Vikki Blake

Ubisoft has introduced a huge number of tweaks, big and small, to its third-person shooter, The Division.

Update 1.4 - detailed on the official The Division website - introduces World Tiers "that controls the level of enemy NPCs encountered and the quality of the loot they drop". This will help players level up without necessarily venturing into the game's notoriously tough PvP territory, the Dark Zone, or taking on Incursions.

The new World Tiers are set at levels 30, 31, 32, or 22. Tier 1 drops gear score rewards 163, Tier 2, 182 (and also unlocks Incursions and Challenge difficulty), Tier 3 rewards 204, and the top Tier offers gear score rewards 229. Plus, there's now a chance any NPC will drop High End and Gear Set loot, and Weekly and Daily mission drops are more likely to match your current level.

Skill Bonus from has been removed from all gear items. Instead, Backpacks, Holsters and Kneepads will now have additional slots dedicated to Performance Mods (Backpack = 2, Holster = 1, Kneepads = 1). Interestingly, this change will not be retroactive, so any existing gear remains as is.

Other tweaks include changes to the UI, and gameplay revisions that include lowering time-to-kill enemy NPCs, "many improvements" to enemy AI, and a 50 percent boost in ammo capacity after level 30. There have also been significant changes to loot and rewards, including Vendor stocks better adaptingto the player level during the 1 to 30 progression.

For the full list of changes (and there are loads), you can head on over to the official website.

Survival and Last Stand, the next two large expansions for The Division, have been pushed back to later this year and early next year. Ubisoft explained that the developer's "priority should now be on improving the core gameplay experience" following the feedback the team has received about the game.

In our The Division: Underground review - the shooter's first DLC pack - we gave it a mediocre 6.7, stating: "Focusing on The Division’s strength while trimming the fat sounds like a great idea, but Underground fumbles the idea. This is the same combat you’ve already experienced, just in a dingier, more confined setting, and the lack of gear-appropriate matchmaking means you’re either stuck watching overpowered allies mow down hapless enemies, or you’re stuck doing it until you unlock more challenging content".

Vikki Blake is a very jumpy survival horror survivalist. You can find her twittering over at @_vixx and twitching at twitch.tv/vixxiie.